PEEPARATIONS OF MILK. 



283 



learned to toast grain. Upon journeys the African 

 boils his holcus unhusked in an earthen basin, drinks 

 the water, and devours the grain, which in this state is 

 called masango ; at home he is more particular. The 

 holcus is either rubbed upon a stone — the mill being 

 wholly unknown — or pounded with a little water in a 

 huge wooden mortar ; when reduced to a coarse powder, 

 it is thrown into an earthen pot containing boiling water 

 sufficient to be absorbed by the flour; a little salt, when 

 procurable, is added ; and after a few stirrings with a 

 ladle, or rather with a broad and flat-ended stick, till 

 thoroughly saturated, the thick mass is transferred into 

 a porous basket, which allows the extra moisture to 

 leak out. Such is the ugali, or porridge, the staff of 

 life in East Africa. 



During the rains vegetables are common in the 

 more fertile parts of East Africa ; they are within 

 reach of the poorest cultivator. Some varieties, espe- 

 cially the sweet potato and the mushroom, are sliced 

 and sun-dried to preserve them through the year. 

 During the barren summer they are boiled into a kind 

 of broth. 



Milk is held in high esteem by all tribes, and some 

 live upon it almost exclusively during the rains, when 

 cattle find plentiful pasture* It is consumed in three 

 forms — " mabichi," when drunk fresh ; or converted 

 into mabivu (butter-milk), the rubb of Arabs; or in 

 the shape of mtindi (curded milk), the laban of Arabia, 

 and the Indian dahi. These Africans ignore the duclh- 

 pinda, or ball of fresh-milk boiled down to hardness by 

 evaporation of the serum, as practised by the Indian 

 halwai (confectioner) ; the indurated sour-clot of Arabia^ 

 called by the Bedouins el igt, and by the Persians the 

 Baloch, and the Sindhians kurut, is also unknown ; and 



